From SBA Loan to High 8-Figure Exit | Jerod Pierce Interview

Today's story has an eye-watering outcome. And it shows the potential of buying a business. Jerod Pierce used the equity from a townhome that he'd house-hacked with some buddies to buy an HVAC business doing $3.5m in revenue, half a million of SDE. He was able to buy the business himself, without investors. Five years later, he sold it for upper 8 figures. Jerod doesn't tell us the exact figure, but he does say that he turned down $95 million, so it had to be in range of that. Jerod is humble about this staggering success. He acknowledges that timing was crucial here; he bought and grew Mercurios just as HVAC was becoming a white-hot target for private equity. But really there is so much Jerod should take credit for. He did 10x the revenue of the business over those 5 years from $3.5m to $35m, and 12x'd that $500k SDE to over $6m of EBITDA. So yes, there is luck here in that he could command a higher multiple than he might have gotten in cooler times. But at $6m of EBITDA, he would have had a big 8-figure exit whatever the multiples had been. He's subsequently acquired another small home services business, this time through his family office rather than as a scrappy self-funded searcher with an SBA loan. But it has not gone well, and Jerod believes that his lack of presence is a big reason why. There is much to take from this epic business-buying journey with Jerod Pierce, owner of Olympic Holdings Investments. Enjoy.

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Chapters:
00:00 Jerod’s Background
15:42 Journey to Harvard Business School
35:00 Proprietary search strategy and approach
42:24 Acquiring Mercurios HVAC business
01:01:00 Growing Mercurios through marketing and operations
01:18:00 Selling for nearly $100M after 5 years
01:35:54 New ventures and challenges in windows/doors business
01:56:36 Insights on HVAC industry timing and maturity
01:59:54 Family office strategy and future plans

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ABOUT Acquiring Minds
Acquiring Minds is a podcast about buying businesses. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome opportunity for many entrepreneurs, and host Will Smith talks to the people who do it. New episodes 2x per week.

Credits:
Edited by Anton Rohozov
Produced by Pam Cameron

#business #acquisitions #buyingbusiness